Boot hanger



Nov. 5, 1957 J. VOLOSIN 2,812,066

7 BOOT HANGER Filed July 24, 1953 IINVENTOR.

BY W r Armauszs John Volosin United States Patent BOOT HANGER JohnVolosin, Roscoe, Pa.

Application July 24, 1953, Serial No. 370,028

1 Claim. (Cl. 21134) This invention relates to apparel hangers and moreparticularly to a hanger by means of which a boot, shoe, or the like maybe suspended from a clothes line, rod, or other suitable overheadsupport while being aired and dried.

When boots of the type used for horseback riding, hiking, constructionwork, and other outdoor work are removed they are often found to be wetand softened by perspiration and if set at rest in an upright position,the weight of the long upper will cause them to wrinkle about the angleportion as they dry and it is then difficult to again put them on and inaddition the boots will not be comfortable.

In order to prevent such deformation of a boot, it is customary tosuspend the boots in an inverted position from an overhead support fordrying after they have been removed, but hangers now used are notsatisfactory as they grip the boots in such a manner that the welt andadjoining portions of the shoe are liable to be scratched, scarred, orotherwise disfigured and the appearance of a riding boot or other dressyboot spoiled.

Therefore, one object of the invention is to provide a hanger for bootsand shoes having arms or jaws which are presented downwardly and havefree lower ends which are wide and so formed that they may straddle theinstep portion of a boot sole and firmly grip the welt portion atopposite sides thereof without scratching or otherwise marring the soleor portions of the upper adjacent the sole.

Another object of the invention is to provide a hanger which may beformed as a unit from a single strip of resilient sheet metal and hasdownwardly presented arms connected at upper ends by a bridge portionfrom which extends an upwardly presented support-engaging hook.

Another object of the invention is to provide a hanger of this characterwherein the support-engaging hook is formed from a strip cut from thebridge portion of the hanger and bent upwardly therefrom, thus providinga hook which is integral with the clamp and not liable to be broken oiior accidentally twisted out of a desired angular relation to the bridgeportion of the hanger.

Another object of the invention is to provide a hanger for boots andshoes which may be easily and quickly applied and will tightly grip thesole of a shoe or boot and not be liable to slip out of grippingengagement therewith.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists of aspecial construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in theaccompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. l is a view showing a boot in side elevation and suspended from aclothesline by a hanger of the improved construction;

Fig. 2 is a view in elevation of the hanger taken at right angles toFig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the hanger;

Fig. 4 is a view in elevation looking at the left hand side of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a view in elevation showing hangers of the improvedconstruction applied to a wire coat hanger;

Fig. 6 is a view in elevation showing the improved hangers suspendedupon nails driven into a flooring beam or similar overhead support.

The boot, which is indicated in general by the numeral 1, represents aboot of the type worn by hunters, engineers and other men engaged inoutdoor work, but it could be a riding boot or the like. Such boots havehigh tops and when they are worn have a tendency to wrinkle about theankle, especially if they become wet.

The sole 2 of the boot and the heel 3 have been shown provided withcleats 4 but it will be understood that if the boot is a riding boot,the cleats will be omitted.

After a boot of this type is removed and has dried, the wrinkles remainin the ankle portion thereof if set in an upright position and in orderto overcome this objection many persons hang the boots in an invertedposition from an overhead support. It has been found, however, thathangers now in use are so engaged with the boots that they scar the weltportion of the sole and also portions of the upper close to the welt andthus spoil the appearance of the boot.

The improved boot hanger constituting the subject matter of thisinvention is applied as shown in Fig. 1 and when so applied a boot maybe suspended from an overhead support such as a clothesline 5 withoutportions of the boot gripped by the hanger being scarred. This hanger 6is formed from a strip of resilient metal and upon referring to Fig. 2it will be seen that the hanger is substantially U-shaped and has arms 7the upper ends of which merge into a bridge portion. The strip of metalfrom which the hanger is formed is quite wide and lower ends of the armsare bent outwardly to form lips or jaws 8 having portions of their sideedges rounded as shown at 9 so that the side edges of the lips mergeinto the lower free edges thereof and thus eliminate sharp corners whichwould be liable to scar the leather of the boot upper when the hanger isapplied to the boot. When the strip is bent to form the lips or jaws 8,inwardly presented ridges 10 are formed which fit across the uppersurface of the Welt in close contacting engagement with adjoiningportions of the welt and the upper and thus cause the boot to be firmlygripped and prevented from slipping downwardly out of engagement withthe hanger. The angular disposition of the jaWs or lips 8 permits themto be grasped and the arms '7 of the hanger sprung outwardly so that thehanger may be readily disconnected from the boot when it is to beremoved and such spreading action may also be effected when the hangeris applied to the boot.

In order that the hanger may be engaged with a clothesline or othersuitable overhead support, there has been provided a book 11. This bookis formed from a strip 12 which is provided by striking or cutting amarginal side portion of the wide strip of resilient metallongitudinally substantially midway its width from approximately thecenter of its bridge portion. The longitudinal cut extends into theupper portion of one of the arms '7 and then diag onally towards oneside edge of this arm until this end of the strip is free from the arm.After therstrip has been formed, it is bent upwardly to form the hookwhich has an arcuate bill portion 13 and the shank of the hook istwisted at its junction with the bridge portion of the hanger so thatthe hook is disposed transversely of the hanger. Therefore, when thehook is engaged with a clothesline a boot to which the hanger is appliedwill be disposed transversely of the clothesline and a pair of boots maybe suspended in side-by-side relation to each other and will occupy aminimum length of the clothesline and thus take up a small amount ofroom. Of course, if so desired, the twist may be omitted, in which casethe hook will extend longitudinally of the bridge portion of thePatented Nov. 5, 1957 hanger and boots to which the hangers are appliedwill extend longitudinally of the clothesline.

Instead of engaging the hooks with a clothesline they may be engagedwith the stretcher bar 14 of a wire coat hanger 1 5 and the hook 16. ofthe coat hanger thenengaged with the clothesline or any other suitableoverhead sup port. This is illustrated in Fig. 5 wherethe two hangersare engaged with the stretcher bar and disposed near opposite endsthereof so that an even balance will be obtained and the boots disposedin desired transversely spaced relation to each other.

In Fig. 6 there has been shown a pair of boot hangers which, instead ofbeing engaged with a clothesline or a coat hanger, have their bridgeportions engaged with nails 17 driven into a floor beam 18 of a porch,cellar or the like under which it is desired to have the boots suspendedwhile being dried and aired.

It will be obvious that the hangers may be suspended from other.overhead supports.

As this invention may beiembodied in several forms without departingfrom the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, the presentembodiment is therefore illustrative and not restrictive, since thescope of the invention is defined by the appended claim rather than bythe description preceding it, and all changes that fall within the metesand bounds of the claim or that form its functional as well asconjointly cooperative equivalents, are therefore intended to beembraced by that claim.

What I claim is:

support basses fo a best, s e? n he l ke semprising a relatively wideband body of substantially C- form and resilient material and having thefree end portions thereof in spaced opposed relation and adapted toresiliently engage under the side edges of the sole of an inverted boot,shoe and the like, a hook tongue comprising a strip of the materialfashioned from a part removed from one side edge of the central C-formportion extending away from the qwformtportion centrally thereof andsubstantially normal thereto, the shank of said hook tongue having atorsional twist to orient the hook at right angles to the C-torrnportion to facilitate its engagement over a supporting means such as acord, wire or bar extending in the direction of the-length of the band,whereby a num' ber of such hangers may be positioned to support boots,shoes and the like with the soles thereof in side edge to edge relation.

References Qitedin the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,146,981 Weinberg July 20, 1915 1,718,316 Swenson June 25, 1929 ,032, 3He tn m M 6 2,278,258 C illett Mar. 31, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS 70,218Norway aof 1946

